Sorry to hear it, Skammer. Hopefully something turns up quickly!
Well it sucks. Having been there, the real key was keeping my spirits up. After a couple days, I decided no sleeping in, and established a routine. Looking for a job became my job, but I also made sure I did some things to enjoy the time off. Of course I had to be careful with money, but I was able to do some home projects I had been putting off, stuff like that. The dogs enjoyed having me around.
If it gets really bad, you will have plenty of time to be miserable, so no point in starting early!
You will land on a job with your years of work experience. That’s going to look good on resume.
It just depends on the individual, but nobody is being forced to do anything. If one has never saved for a rainy day, think their job is always going to be there, it’s a valuable lesson to be learned. My last factory job was always threatening to send our jobs to Mexico, so at least the writing was on the wall, and wasn’t going to take no chance in case they did do this. They actually tried it, but the Mexicans were so corrupt, the employees were stealing all of the tools to where they rarely had a productive day, and eventually had to shut down that factory, so most kept their jobs here in the states.
Even at 23, for myself, I still would have bought the house after I was laid off, but just would have had to have taken a more mediocre job sooner. Wouldn’t have cared that much if I didn’t receive a dime from unemployment.
That truly sucks, skammer. I’ll ask around a bit for anything in your field locally. If I hear of something, I’ll let you know.
I’ve been involuntarily laid off twice. (I also accepted a buyout in one case, and was let go after telling my employer of my intent to resign in a few months in another, but neither was really a surprise.)
In one case, the principals of the company took me out to lunch which I assumed was a preamble to a business development effort I had proposed but turned out to be a “We are having a cash flow problem and need to reduce headcount, so we’re going to lock you out of the office and courier your personal effects to your home,” monologue. What was really awkward was they announced this right before the entrees arrived, and one of the principals decided this needed to be a three beer lunch while the other was nursing his iced tea, and I sat their like the pregnant teenager in church. At least they picked up the check, which was the only severence I got. My only satisfaction was that I was their highest performer and the only person that a couple of clients would work with, so instead of improving their financials they lost cash flow.
In the other case, the company hired Receeding Hairline George Clooney to come in any fire me. My boss and VP of Engineering were in the room but RHGC did all of the talking off of his script, so there really wasn’t much time to think or get upset, and he had all of his “here’s your severence options, COBRA paperwork, and recruiting/retraining” shit in order, so it was efficient and professional despite the fact that the company management was clueless and disorganized. They let me pack up my own stuff and say a few goodbyes while my project lead hid out in whatever rathole he’d been hiding away in most of the time I worked there. It was a bit of a gut punch when I got home, but it was also something of a relief to be free since the operation was such a mess, and the company was clearly going to be bought out by a competitor. In retrospect it was the best possible thing because the people who got cut later didn’t get nearly as good of a severence, and the people who stayed to turn out the lights got a nice package but a drawn out transfer that was depressing and a lot of criticism from the new company. On the other hand, I spent the summer working part time at a bar and generally hanging out at the beach and sailing while calling my former coworkers periodically and letting them know how awesome life was when not working for their company.
Stranger
I’m sorry; that stinks.
I hope you can take some time for yourself to just relax and decompress before doing anything. Good luck with your job search.
Never been RIFed (yet), but one time I remember that they made one woman tell everyone and at the end, tell her that she had also been laid off.
Of course, if you find a job sooner you can get paid from the new employer and severance at the same time, which is even better.
One possibly important thing to be aware of is that - at least in some states (e.g. NJ) - unemployment insurance is not retroactive (unlike, for example, disability insurance). If that’s the case in your state you want to make sure you apply as soon as your layoff begins.
There’s a huge difference between a company eliminating 1/4 of its workforce and eliminating 23% of the positions at corporate, as was done here.
What do you do, Skammer? I can look at the open jobs for my company, too. We’re going through something of an expansion right now.
StG
I’m sorry, Skammer. No matter how much we want a change, getting laid off is a shock.
I was laid off just before Thanksgiving two years ago. So here are my suggestions (if you don’t mind):
[ol]
[li]Update Linked In. Don’t have a Linked In? Get one. Add friends and work friends and acquaintances. If you worked together and got on well enough, add that person. Do not worry that this seems calculated; we all do it. My work pals helped me when I was laid off; I helped them when they were laid off. [/li]
[li]Have a photo with your Linked In profile. A selfie of you looking fairly professional is fine. A pro photo is best, but who has those just sitting around? [/li]
[li]Get a gmail address just for looking for work. [/li]
[li]Get onto Monster and post your resume. Use the gmail address on your resume. Have a couple of different versions of the resume if you can work in a couple of different areas. For example, I can do both claims/EDI work, and Business Analyst work. So I have two resumes. [/li]
[li]Find out what benefits go with you from your old job, and for how long. [/li]
[li]Find out from the state what help you can get to tide you through. Depending on the state you live in, this could be a lot or a little or nothing. If you don’t get a job in 3.5 months, will you qualify for health insurance, housing assistance, food stamps, unemployment? [/li]
[li]Don’t allow yourself to become isolated. Schedule time to look for work. But also, schedule time to meet up with contacts for coffee. Meet friends for lunch or dinner. Go outside and take a walk. Ride a bike. Something. Just don’t sit around the house on the computer. [/li]
[li]If you can pick up a temporary or contract job, go for it. A little more cash never hurt anyone.[/li][/ol]
Best of luck to you. I actually landed my dream job after being laid off, and I’m happy it worked out. I hope the same happens to you.
All that, and remember you still have a job - your job now is to get a new job. Take enough time to clear your head, but that’s all - then spend all the time you were used to spending at the office working on your resume (it must be perfect), networking, Web-searching, e-mailing, applying, etc. It isn’t a vacation and you don’t have time to be sorry for yourself. Focus.
If I were in this situation, I believe this would be an incredibly un-productive use of my time, but YMMV. For the most part I think there’s a fairly early point of rapidly diminishing returns spending all your time looking for a job. I agree more with some others who talked about taking time to enjoy some things, get some stuff done around the house, etc.
[quote=“GrumpyBunny, post:31, topic:734693”]
[li]Get onto Monster and post your resume. Use the gmail address on your resume. Have a couple of different versions of the resume if you can work in a couple of different areas. For example, I can do both claims/EDI work, and Business Analyst work. So I have two resumes.[/li][/QUOTE]
Monster gets you a lot of annoying outside-your-field random contacts, though. I recently posted my resume - with 25 years of chemical engineering experience - and by the end of the week had had 30+ attempts to contact me about exciting opportunity in insurance sales that I’d be perfect for. The first one was a call 5 minutes after I’d posted my resume (at 11 pm).
I think making it clear on your resume what kind of job you’re looking for would be useful, but probably won’t stop that type of trawling for insurance sales and other extreme-turnover positions.
I had that happen as well, Lightray. It’s part of being online. You say no, then move on (or ignore the email and put the sender on your junk list).
Monster also got me to the headhunter who got me my dream job.
[quote=“GrumpyBunny, post:31, topic:734693”]
[li]Get onto Monster and post your resume. Use the gmail address on your resume. Have a couple of different versions of the resume if you can work in a couple of different areas. For example, I can do both claims/EDI work, and Business Analyst work. So I have two resumes. [/li][/QUOTE]
I don’t recommend posting your resume on Monster. Try finding a jobs site that is in tune to your location or your field of work. Monster will garner you tons of opportunities to do things you have no intention of doing. Instead, use Monster to do a keyword search. If you find something, go directly to the company’s website and apply there.
And network with your old coworkers, neighbors, family and so forth. You never know who might be looking for someone with your job skills.
So, sorry for the delayed response - I used to read the Straight Dope daily, but now that I’m not working in an office, even though I’m online a good deal each day I’m doing other things. Odd that now that I have so much more free time I tend to waste a lot less of it!
Anyway, to answer your question, our VP sat on one side of the table and the three of us sat on the other side. There were no pleasantries or small talk. “Today the company is announcing a major restructuring, eliminating 250 jobs at [corporate headquarters]. That includes the three of yours, as well as [our boss]. I have these envelopes for you which will explain your severance options and COBRA for benefits. Your network access is being shut off right now. Your security badges will work for the next two hours to give you a chance to pack your things.” He went on for a few minutes explaining what was in the envelopes, and then we were done. While we packed up our desks, he called the rest of the department into a separate meeting to tell them what was going on.
There were no tears from us - just shock. Some of our co-workers cried. No explanations given to the three of us about how the company would be functioning – after all, it didn’t matter to us anymore!
Anyway, four weeks later and I’m doing fine. No job yet, but making lots of connections and I have resumes and applications in the wind. I’m hopeful I’ll land somewhere before the end of the year.
ETA: I forgot to mention, after the VP was done giving us the message, my co-worker said “Thanks Chris. I’d hate to be you today.” I thought that was a weird thing to say. Sure it sucks to lay off a bunch of people, but all things considered I’d rather have been in his position than ours…
And, thanks for all the kind words everyone else, too. I’ve already done a lot of the things suggested, and part of the separation package included the services of a job search company which has been more helpful than I expected. I’ve got my LinkedIn page and resume all polished up and I’m networking like crazy.
For those who asked, I’m in contact center operations/management – mainly in the HR sphere but I have some experience with tech and application support also. Relocation is not an option; I am tied to the greater Nashville area. But this area is really booming right now so it’s a good place at a good time. I’m really not worried yet (after the new year is when I start to worry).
Wow, never been laid off like that or known many people to have been, usually in the UK if a company doesn’t need you anymore - and you have a permanent contract - they have to offer you a different job and voluntary redundancy or just involuntary redundancy. Reading the OP was stinging, I imagine the only positive with an end like that is that you’d not miss the place very much!
Good luck, Skammer, sounds like you have plenty of relevant, transferable skills and other <insert HR words here> of that nature! I won’t give advice because you worked in HR, so probably know more about finding suitable jobs than I do.
I’ve been laid off and let go too many times in my life. I went through all my unemployment pay and gutted my retirement fund, for which I’m still paying taxes for early withdrawal. It’s really hard to keep up the self-esteem when you’re idle.
It took me about 5 years to finally land a decent full-time job. I started off as a temp at my current workplace and kept thinking “Today could possibly be my last day. I better not get attached to anybody here or it’ll add to the heartache when I get let go.” Fortunately they kept me on and promoted me to full time. I’m in my mid 50s and am essentially rebooting my life. Forget having a nice retirement. I’m going to keep working till I drop.
My advice is keep the resume current on LinkedIn, monster, careerbuilder, etc. Recruiters use those sites and search for key words related to the positions they’re looking to fill. I never got callbacks from applying online through monster and careerbuilder. I did get a couple from answering Craig’s List ads. You might get calls from India (yes, they even outsource that too) and get offered a few trashy temp/contract positions for which you’ll feel you have no choice but to accept. I worked for the US Census for a week. I got tired of people refusing to talk to me, thinking I was some kind of government thug. My only meaningful jobs were found by recruiters who found my resume online. Waiting to be found worked better than actively searching, in my case.
Another thing: take advantage of any skill ports you can find. If you manage to get signed with a recruiting agency, take their online courses so you can have more keywords to add to your resume. You can also get training from the ESC (Employment Security Commission) office.
Hopefully, employment conditions aren’t as bad today as they were back in 2008 when the tech bubble and the housing market bursts occurred. Best of luck to you.